Thanks to a $1000 grant from the KW Awesome Foundation, we were able to hold a pumpkin carving and learn-to-solder workshop at THEMUSEUM.

Contents 1 Date 2 Materials 2.1 Carve 2.2 Solder 3 Publicity 4 Insurance 4.1 Budget and capacity planning 5 Soldering Kit 5.1 Hacking 5.1.1 Programming 5.1.2 Arduino sketch

Date

October 29, 2011

Materials

Carve

• pumpkins (Nauman's Farm will give us 100 pumpkins for $250)
• carving saws([1])
• scoops
• Pushpins for pattern transfer
• toothpicks, to repair pumpkin after carving accident
• patterns, printed out from zombiepumpkins.com
• scissors, for cutting excess paper from the patterns
• tape, to hold the pattern on the pumpkin while transferring the pattern
• newspapers, to protect tables from pumpkin guts
• pails, to hold pumpkin guts
• fine point markers, for marking out patterns
• large kitchen knife to slice goop off the lids

Solder

• Soldering stations (8+)
• Sponges
• Solder (63/37 SnPb)
• Diagonal cutters
• Repair/rework tools: solder sucker, desoldering braid, flux, helping hands/vise, pliers, wire strippers, tweezers, scalpel, etc
• Power bars/extension cords

One-page soldering comic: http://www.tvbgone.com/mfaire/soldercomic/soldercomic.pdf Assembly instructions:

Publicity

Press release:

• Write and send it on to CTV, The Record, The Chronicle, and the UW and WLU papers.
• Banner on our front page
• Short blurb: Learn how to carve a pumpkin and solder your own LED lighting system. Pumpkins, electronics and admission are free. 10am - 5pm at THEMUSEUM.ca, 10 King St W Kitchener. Sponsored by kwartzlab.ca

Insurance

Our insurance cover external events.

Budget and capacity planning

• Pumpkins: $250
• Soldering kit: $650

Soldering Kit

Hacking

Programming

Optiboot bootloader (optiboot_hackyhalloween.hex)

Makefile:

hh: TARGET = atmega328
hh: MCU_TARGET = atmega328p
hh: CFLAGS += '-DMAX_TIME_COUNT=F_CPU>>4' '-DNUM_LED_FLASHES=1' -DBAUD_RATE=9600
hh: AVR_FREQ = 1000000L 
hh: LDSECTION  = --section-start=.text=0x7800
hh: $(PROGRAM)_hackyhalloween.hex

To compile bootloader:

make clean
make hh

Append to boards.txt and select in the Arduino IDE under Tools->Board

HackyHalloween.name=Hacky Halloween w/ ATmega328P (1MHz IRC)

HackyHalloween.upload.protocol=arduino
HackyHalloween.upload.maximum_size=30720
HackyHalloween.upload.speed=9600

HackyHalloween.bootloader.low_fuses=0xFF
HackyHalloween.bootloader.high_fuses=0xDA
HackyHalloween.bootloader.extended_fuses=0xFF
HackyHalloween.bootloader.path=atmega
HackyHalloween.bootloader.file=optiboot_hackyhalloween.hex
HackyHalloween.bootloader.unlock_bits=0x3F
HackyHalloween.bootloader.lock_bits=0x0F

HackyHalloween.build.mcu=atmega328p
HackyHalloween.build.f_cpu=1000000L
HackyHalloween.build.core=arduino
HackyHalloween.build.variant=standard

Arduino sketch

/*
  Hacky Halloween
      by
    kwartzlab  

  October 2011

  Code by James Bastow <bastow@gmail.com>

  This software is in the public domain.
*/


int LED1 = 9;    // LED on digital pin 9
int LED2 = 10;   // LED on digital pin 10

void setup()
{
  randomSeed(analogRead(0));
} 

void loop()
{ 
  analogWrite(LED1, random(127,255));
  analogWrite(LED2, random(127,255));
  delay(random(20,100));                            
}